Friday Trainwreck – Hitch edition

One of my favourite authors died yesterday, so I feel the need to honour him today… regular, nutty Friday Trainwreck to reappear next week.

I first started paying serious attention to Christopher Hitchens when I read a series of articles by him in Vanity Fair magazine, whereby he was challenged to, well, pay more attention to his appearance. Now, given that he once described himself looking like “a burst horsehair sofa cushion or . . . a condom hastily stuffed with an old sock”, the fact that this unapologetic, chain-smoking, hard-drinking, snaggle-toothed Brit was willing to undergo any sort of beautification procedure was sure to be entertaining. (Oddly, my biggest take away from this three-part series was the waxing term “sack, back and crack”… Christopher Hitchens is always a “back, sack and crack” man in my mind now. I don’t know how he would feel about this). Read about his incredibly forthright and amusing three-part “make over”… HERE …HERE … and HERE.

From that article on, I was a Hitch fan. I searched backward and forward, trying to find all the articles that he had written – this would prove impossible, given how enviably prolific he was. He was what writers should be, and what journalists are afraid to become – unafraid to have his beliefs challenged, but only by those brilliant enough to keep up, and stupid enough to try. For example, Hitch didn’t understand what the big deal was with waterboarding, and so in 2008, in a flash of mad genius, he decided to allow himself to be put through the process. How he came out of it on the other side is the stuff of legend, and a huge reason why he is, was, and always be, a respected man and a proper journalist. (See the video of his experience HERE).

Christopher Hitchens died yesterday after a lengthy fight with esophageal cancer. I didn’t always agree with him, and sometimes I was (in all honestly) completely confused by his writing, but I respected him and how he stood fast on his views, regardless of their popularity. His staunch arguments on atheism made sense to me, and his book God is Not Great made me seriously look at how I viewed religion. I cannot thank him enough for that. I’ll miss you, Hitch. A hell of a lot of people will miss you… but I know that there are some out there now who are breathing a sigh of relief at your death, because they know they’ll never have to face off with you and be held accountable for their actions and beliefs.